Hyundai unveils design for trio of electric powered vehicles

Hyundai heads full-steam into the electric vehicle market with the designing of three new electric powered vehicles; a new pure electric car, a new plug-in hybrid car, and a new regular hybrid car. (KABC)

Hyundai heads full-steam into the electric vehicle market with three new electric powered vehicles: a new pure electric car, a new plug-in hybrid car, and a new regular hybrid car.

"We call it the power of choice," said Hyundai spokesman Derek Joyce. "And the new Hyundai Ioniq is available in three unique power-trains all built with different wires in mind."

The designs look nearly identical, but Hyundai says they are designed to appeal in different ways.

The Ioniq hybrid promises up to 50 miles per gallon with a base price of about $22,000. A plug-in version with extra battery capacity arrives later this year, and could do around 27 miles of electric driving.

And finally, a pure plug-in Ioniq with no engine at all, and an estimated driving range of over 100 miles. It starts around $30,000, before any government rebates.

This trio is Hyundai's attempt to go after the legendary Toyota Prius in a big way.

Hyundai likes to say that the Ioniq is more pleasing to the eye and they're going Toyota one better, as far as choice.

There is no purely electric version of the Prius. In fact, Toyota doesn't currently offer a pure battery electric vehicle at all.

Hyundai says there is a big future for cars that run on battery power because the millennial generation will be buying more cars soon, and they're more open to electric vehicles, especially when living in urban areas.

In the future, you may be seeing a lot of these types of cars on the road using not much gasoline or none at all.